Up and Coming

With the season now over the guys at 99NoveNove took the opportunity to catch up with one of their youngest and brightest talents — Marc Paré (99NoveNove / Simmer / Maui Ultra Fins) — who is already making his mark on the world tour, competing in both the waves and slalom. You can read the interview below.

Hi Marc, please can you tell us a bit about your experience during the Novenove Maui Aloha Classic?

MP: “The Novenove Maui Aloha Classic was one of the best experiences I’ve had. Dream-like waves and moments and scary conditions made the event one of the best ones ever seen. It was really scary and challenging going out in double mast high waves and Ho’okipa closing out. It was my first time ever in Ho’okipa and the conditions weren’t a joke. In my first heat I was really scared and nervous, but after riding a double mast high bomb everything changed and turned into a magic and unique moment. I had my best result of the year (25th) in a conditions that really weren’t the ones that I’m used to, so I’m really happy after all. I learned a lot and was able to significantly improve my starboard tack sailing. I have to thank 99novenove, Cesare and Sergio for their amazing support!”

How was 2015 overall for you?

MP: “The season has officially ended. It has been the most difficult season I’ve faced so far with a tough start, but a great finish with good results. It’s been a season where I have learned a lot, I’ve lived new experiences all over the globe and I’ve met new people.

The season began with the Slalom Spanish Championship in Almeria, where I managed a 1st place in the youth category and 4th position overall, which was a great start of the season.

The second event was the Slalom European Championship (category U20) in Hyères, France, where I got a 10th place. For me it was a very tough championship, as many factors came together and made it really challenging. But leaving aside the difficulties and mistakes it was a competition where I learned a lot and even if the final result was not as expected, it wasn’t bad.

The legendary long-distance race Le Défi Wind, was my third event of the season. More than 1,200 competitors faced wind gusting to 65 knots during the 4 days, so it was a gruelling contest sailing 42 km every day in those conditions. I probably had the worst experience on a windsurfer when I broke my gear and found myself alone drifting in the middle of the sea, at that moment you feel quite small and insignificant. I finished 120th out of the 1,200 competitors.

Catalonia freestyle championship at Port de la Selva (Costa Brava) was the fourth event of the season. A good result in this competition finishing 1st in the youth category and 2nd in the overall (with the same points as the 1st place).

The fifth race of the season was the second stop of the Slalom Spanish championship held in Roses. A great competition where I was able to win the youth category and take home 3rd overall.

My first slalom event of the season PWA World Tour was held in St. Pere Pescador (Costa Brava), where I had very good heats against the top guys where I was sometimes even leading them.

I travelled to the southern part of Italy (Reggio Calabria) to attend the U20 Slalom World Championship where I was 8th. Probably got luck against me, as many uncontrollable facts stopped me getting to the podium (a plastic bag on the fin, a broken sail, a ripped footstrap…). Anyway, I’m happy because I started the competition in 4th position and I was feeling good.

After many slalom competitions, I went back to the waves with the first wave event of the PWA World Tour in Gran Canaria. It was really tough to get back to the discipline with only a few days to get used to it before the competition. During the competition I didn’t really find myself sailing and couldn’t enter the main event and got 3rd in the juniors.

In the second round of the PWA wave Tenerife everything went much better after I had been training for 3 weeks in Gran Canaria. I could enter the main competition where I got a 25th position and I won in the youth category, claiming the PWA junior wave world champion title.

Denmark held the third stop of the PWA Wave Tour. An event with very challenging conditions, but where I learned a lot and had a great result (25th)!

After Denmark we headed to Sylt (Germany) to compete in the fourth stop of the tour. Unfortunately we could only compete in slalom where I managed a creditable 33rd position.

Brittany held the penultimate event of the professional tour. As we didn’t have conditions to run the main event, we did a Tow-in competition/exhibition where I got the 3rd place!

The wave tour ended with the final event in Hawaii. In the last event I found the most radical and challenging conditions I’ve ever seen, with double mast high waves and light wind. However, I got through some heats (even winning one) and got 25th position!

The season ended with the freestyle Spanish championship in Zaragoza. I got the 2nd place overall after fighting for the first position in the second final, and won in the youth category.

You finished third place in the youth's in Pozo and then won in Tenerife, what were your strengths in Tenerife?

MP: “I’ve been spending some of my summer holidays in Pozo since I was 13, so that’s why I prefer Pozo than Tenerife (I’m more into Pozo-jumping-routine), the problem was that I arrived too late in Pozo this year (because I had the Slalom Youth World Championship) and after nearly 3 months only doing slalom racing it was hard to go back to the wave kit with only a few days to train. So I wasn’t at 100% during the comp. I got little bit upset with the 3rd place in Pozo because I knew that my sailing was much better than the level I showed in competition, so after the event I started training really hard my jumping and also my wave riding. In Tenerife I felt way more prepared and I tried to work a lot on my wave riding and in the end it worked out well! Jumping has always been my strength, so I was happy to produce a great performance wave riding which has always been harder for me!”

You are only 17 years old and you are already travelling the world, how can you manage windsurfing and your school work?

MP: “First thing I have to say is that it is not an easy job!!! I sometimes spend one full month out of school and when I come back I have to do all the work that my schoolmates have done during my absence. It requires a lot of hard work and persistence, but you know what they say: “If you want it, you got to work hard”, so this is what I try to do. For sure the easiest choice would be to quit the studies and only focus on windsurfing, but this is not in my plans. I think it is really important to keep studying (if not the most important thing) and as long as I can I want to keep doing both things, but for sure without quitting windsurfing!”

In 2015 you joined the team 99NoveNove, why did you decide to make this move?

MP: “I thought it was the time for a big change to a new and pushing brand. I first got really attracted by 99NoveNove’s philosophy and plans, so I thought that it really was the chance to grow together with the brand! Also the boards are working awesome and we’ve got our amazing shaper Gianni Valdambrini, who turns our dreams into boards :-).”

We’ve seen you very active on social: regular posts and an excellent video. Do you do everything yourself or do you have someone to help you?

MP: “I do everything myself. I also edited my last three videos, one of my fiends taught me how to do it, so now more or less I manage to do normal videos.”

What advice would you give to young rider like yourself that is looking for a career in professional windsurfing?

MP: “The first advice is to enjoy every moment and to use every single thing to learn and improve! The second one is to believe in your own potential, we can arrive as high as we want, it’s all about hard work and persistence, so don’t let anyone get you down!”

You have participated several times in the trials to enter the main event PWA Wave. Sometimes with good results and sometimes not. How is the level of other riders, and where you need to improve?

MP: “Sometimes there are really tough trials heats so it’s really hard to get in the main event because the level is really high. Now I’ll try to get all the jumps down and really improve my wave riding.”

What models of wave boards 99NoveNove do you use?

MP: “I use the 3x Chameleon on my bigger sizes (85 and 80) and the 4x QUAD 70 on my smaller size.”

Do you think that practicing all disciplines makes you a better windsurfer?

MP: “Not a better windsurfer, but yeah, a more complete windsurfer! I love to practice all the disciplines because all of them bring me different things that help me with the other disciplines, for example: freestyle helps me with my new school wave riding and slalom helps me with my speed, control and racing strategy.”

What are your plans for the winter?

MP: “I will try to travel and train as much as possible to be ready for the next season. I’m planning to go to South Africa and Tenerife, and if possible Maui!”

Finally, what is your dream?

MP: “I could say that my dream is to be one of the best sailors of the world, but for sure my main dream is to be happy doing what I love and to keep learning and improving to be better than the one I was the day before!:

Thanks Marc, good luck with your training over winter and we’ll see you next year.